I told y'all those who wanted to get ahead would read the third chapter of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar made a large image. I don't know whether this was his advisors after Daniel had given him the dream in chapter 6 about the image. You remember the image with four different sections on it where Nebuchadnezzar went on to make an image all of gold. In other words, he was the head of gold on the image that Daniel had talked about in chapter two. But I guess in contrast, he wanted to say that his kingdom would last and God had showed him what was to transpire, what was to happen. And we know mankind has always went against what God had said. And so we start to read the way he made this massive image out in the plains of Dura in the province of Babylon, and that it was all of gold. And he calls his centraps, the governors, the captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, the sheriffs, called everyone around and gathered them together to the dedication of that image. the king had set up, and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And then he cried aloud to you, it is commanded, O people and nations and language, that they should bow down and worship this image that he had made." I'll summarize that a little bit better Saturday on the sermon. But today we want to talk about idol making, idol making. And during this time, we are looking at not wooden images, although we have a lot of material images that we create or make nowadays, but that's vastly improved upon that word idol, idolatry, vastly improved, expanded in this New Testament era. And we have self-idolization. It's just like Nebuchadnezzar was making an image of himself. And that's one of the greatest things that we do today, which I don't see. It's very vain. It's a very vain and narcissistic effort. Selfish. with the cameras and everything. People love to take selfies, pictures of themselves. I've never been seen such a generation that's hung up on graven images. That's what they exactly are, images. A graven image is something that you make if a lot of people idolize and spend boundless number of hours on Facebook. up on other chat bot, Instagram, or whatever, Twitter, or what they call it, X now, whatever. But we have a vain society today. But we also learn from the Apostle Paul, in the book of Galatians and Ephesians, that covetousness is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry, and you have different types of idolatry. Going back from the Old Testament time where Amos was preaching to the people to prepare to meet their God, and he had indicted the people the way they were living, and it was similar to how we're living today. Amos, the sixth chapter and the fourth through the sixth verses say, those who lie on luxurious beds of ivy and lounge around out on their couches eat lambs from the flock and cash from the midst of the stall, who improvising to the sound of the harp like David, they have composed songs for themselves, who drink wine from sacrificial bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oil that is reflected in their unrestrained celebration, yet they are not grieved over the ruin of Israel or Joseph. And so we hear people's hearing songs and music That's another great thing, that idol that we bow down to is music nowadays. There are sports idols and there are shopping idols, there are all types of material items and the possession of things in which we spend more time on. If we look over our past dealings over the last week, and we had a column for God, things of God, studying the things of God, praying to God, meditating on the things of God. How much greater would that balance of that scale be when we measure it against entertainment or online or television or whatever we do that's before God because God says that he should be placed first. So what gets in priority in our lives, that ideal behind that illustration of that indictment that Amos was bringing It illustrates that the excesses of power that the Israelites was possible because of their oppression of the weak. in the poor and we see that today that there are the upper class and we're talking about the one percent oligarchy they call it that we're creating in this nation well we have extreme wealth where is that cabinet of billionaires not millionaires but billionaires millionaires would comprise the the rest of that percentage But the blue collar, the ordinary man would fall below all of these or whatever. And so we see the oppression and the injustices that are going about some people that live very meager lives or whatever. And they're being oppressed in their wages. The government, the wealthy are even complaining about them making a minimum living wage. And we see where they have to protest, not that God doesn't call everybody to be accountable for the stewardship of their finances. So no matter what level you're living at, God's gonna call you to accountability. You can't just say he's gonna judge the wealthy, he's gonna judge the poor also for what you've done with what God has given you. And so if you would read on by the ninth to the tenth verse of that sixth chapter of Amos You'll see where the common Israelites together in one house in fear of the plagues Like just like it is nowadays a lot of people thinking what's gonna happen with this administration as they take away the vaccines or the vaccination and talking about war and all of the different things that are coming about and they recognize their disassociation with God as God left them because the percentage of unchurched people in the nation has greatly increased and God's gonna punish the churches for that. He's gonna punish the churches for that because they're like David. They caused his name to be blasphemous. because they can tell that the churches, and it was Israel that was given to idolatry. The reason God punished the nation is because the religious people allowed this to come about because of their corruption, just as the church that has apostatized today has allowed the church to be in the position it is that A lot of people don't trust the church. And listening to that sermon audio, I have to kind of weave through there a lot of times because it's a lot of preachers and a lot of sermons and teachings. It's, I don't know, you know, should they be preachers or teachers? And it's not giving the people a lot of knowledge. It's not a lot of clarity. I don't see what create a hunger for the people. But as I said, we have to seek and search God for ourselves and God feeds those that are hungry and thirsting after God. We're not gonna be able to blame it on the preacher. We're not gonna be able to blame it on our parents or our children or anyone else because God holds each and every one of us accountable for seek the Lord. Seek the Lord till you find him. So we have to give a counsel, whether you're in church or not, you still have to give account of not being because the grace of God had appeared to all men. That common salvation, if you'd have followed that thread, salvation would be at the end of it, a knowing, a knowledge of God. So the people, whether rich or indulgent or poor and deprived, were self-centered. You can catch the most homeless person. A lot of times they have more pride than those that are out working every day because that proud person said, well, that's not enough. I can't work for that little amount of money or whatever. That job is beneath me or whatever. You have to humble yourself. You have to sometimes operate in shame and humility. A lot of times it's beneath us to beg, but that's what the steward had said. It was beneath him to beg. But sometime God brings you to that point. If you have to be a beggar, it's better to be a beggar than a thief. But even a thief has to steal to eat. And then Proverbs talks about a thief stealing or whatever, but he has to give account when he'd be getting caught. So we're not justifying thievery. but we all have disassociated ourselves from a God that's available to us, and we've placed self on the throne. Our desires, our wants, and we're given to laziness, idleness. How many of us just lay around all the day, even if we retire, get older, and just have nothing to do? There's a lot of volunteer programs you could be involved in to helping others, volunteering your services to others because a sedentary lifestyle to just stop, that's physically detrimental to you. Once you stop and become sedentary, all kinds of physical ailments begin to attack you. at that time, so not only is it physically, but it's spiritually disastrous to us. Throughout chapter six, Amos balances complacency and disaster, boasting and fear, showing that the result from rejecting God and idolizing self. we have to see that God is not partial to either group. God's impartial. He's gonna judge every man according to the deeds done in his body. And he has purpose to purpose for every man to do. So in the book of Haggai, the first chapter of Haggai, the seventh through the 11th chapter, And I have, I think I have a paper here. I think I printed it here. You could take this one. You hadn't got your email working yet, but I'll email it to Sister Jackson and the rest of us. But I've got a printed copy for you here. I printed the whole book here. So you'll have all of this. But God brings seven woes upon the people. He speaks of seven woes that the people has to face, because whether we get with the program or not, whether you fall against God, you fall into one of those categories with inactions. So you need to choose to be active or whatever. But in Haggai, it says, first chapter seven through 11 verse, thus says the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways thoughtfully and reflect on your conduct. Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild my house, that is his temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the Lord. that accepting it is done for my glory. You look for much, but it comes to little. And even when you bring that home, I blow on it. Why, says the Lord of hosts, because of my house, which lies in ruins while each of you runs to his own house, eager to enjoy it. Therefore, because of you, that is your sin and disobedience to heaven withhold their due. the earth withholds their produce. I call for a drought on the land and on the hill country, on the grain, on the dew wine, and on the oil, and on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and all of the labor." Do you see the idolatry involved in this? Because what happened was That was the reason he had freed them from their 70 years captivity through Cyrus was to go back and build the house of God. That was what Cyrus commanded them that God has told them to do. Only a small remnant or percentage did that. The rest of them stayed in Babylon. They were really given over to idolatry. They didn't even go back. But those that went back got involved in building their own houses. And it's like we are, we putting money on ourselves, whether we borrowing money or have it to spend and just spending all we have or whatever. Self is at the center of the thing in most churches. I read you the article I think a couple of weeks how many churches a year over a thousand churches a year think it is it's closing down How many churches are selling off property? I was going over with Sister Jackson of the problems that we have. How many churches are, you notice in the New Testament when, and in the Old Testament when he talked about the remnant coming back, he says, restoring, rebuilding the ruined and desolate and fallen places of David. In other words, the temples, the synagogues. Most kings that made repairs is because the houses of God was in disrepair because the people were just like we are today, buying cars. spending money on tile houses. All of the advertising is remodel your kitchen, make your bathroom anew. It only takes a day, and I'll tell you, it's $10,000 or $12,000 to remodel that bathroom. If they can give you a $1,500 discount, believe me, the rest of it, it's not less than $1,000. It would have to be $10,000 to give you that $1,500 off. But remodeling the clothes our children, you know that that's our little idols our children and everything We're a nation. We're a people that has lost focus of God and that's why it says come out of Babylon a lot of preachers aren't preaching that message unless they didn't twist it and perverted it with a prosperity message So that's what I say, even to the poor people, you still have to give tithes and offerings. You still have to give your time of not forsaking the assembling together of yourself. You still have to come into the knowledge and understanding of God. You still have to be accountable for what you should be doing. Not what everybody else is not doing. So just because the greater people are not doing it, that doesn't mean that you're not responsible for going to church and going regularly. That doesn't mean that you're not responsible for knowing the word of God and not being complacent, not helping build the idols. That's what Nebuchadnezzar did when he called the people to worship the idols and instead of being like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the rest of the people bowed down. That's what they're mad at Morning Joe about is that he went to Mar-a-Lago and he caved in when Trump won or whatever. Instead of being like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, Dr. Anthony Fauci. You know, one of the vindictive things that the Trump administration, that Trump did, he pulled his security detail from Dr. Fauci. In other words, you remember he was getting threats on his life and all of these things, and the NIH, that National Disease Institute, had supplied a security detail after his federal detail had ran off, and the NIH, that National Institute of Health, they had a security, but Trump canceled all of that. This is a man, now he has to pay for his own security detail, Mike Pompeo, Bolton and anybody from that Trump administration, if you don't bow down to worship at the altar of Trump or follow in the tracks of some of these people, they're going to cast you in the fiery furnace where you face trial and affliction. That's what's happening throughout the nation. That's what Bill Maher was talking about when he said he wasn't going to help Los Angeles, that the federal dollars wasn't there. He's going to dis-franchise FEMA. He was going to get rid of FEMA and all of these things. And the people that voted for this, voted him in, and the ones now, they're seeing what's been happening. It's become because you lack knowledge and understanding, but you gave power to these idols, to this, that this is what happens, like the people that allowed Jeroboam to change all of this. Along with change, God punishes the whole nation because The people are representative of their leaders. Somebody had to vote and put him in. Somebody had to empower these people. And when you give money to these things, you help building that idol up. You can't blame Fred Price. You can't blame Krevelo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, or some of these people and say, well, you notice that a lot of times different people talk about Joel Osteen or talk about the Catholics. talking about one another. You can act like crabs in a barrel, pulling one another down if you want to, but you have to concentrate on what you're doing and let those that are help making idols or idol builders or bowing down to idols. You just have to be a Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego. You see, Daniel wasn't named at this time, but you see, these three were like Daniel, personal accountability. whether anybody else could do it or not, I'm not gonna do it. You know, a lot of go on within my family or whatever. That's why you have to learn to deal with the frictions in your family because if you don't watch it, your spouse will take the place of God and you bow down and worship the ground. He or she walks on and they get their own way and they cause you to compromise your principles. You let your children see that in a parent, a parent see that in a child. And quickly, gospel calls you to worship that because now you put that before the principles of the things that you know God is calling you to stand against. God has given you the power to overcome, but you have to not be afraid to face the fiery trials of life. And all the time with idolatry comes the fear of Satan, the Nebuchadnezzars, those that say, do you not go worship at what I told you to do? You don't love me? That's what Samson, I mean, Delilah told Samson. But the minute he bowed down at the altar of Delilah, he ended up blind and bald head committing suicide. The minute Amnon gave in to his self, to lust. to lusting and not denying himself. He raped his sister. He listened to his cousin, Joanna, whatever his name was, and he came up with a plan not to control, not to take charge of that what he had. Even after she told him, Tamar told him, said, well, look, our father's the king. Surely if you talk to him, he can work something out here. don't do this horrible sin. He allowed his passions and his self-centeredness to overtake him to where his lust, this was lust, to show you it was lust, this covet, he had to have her. He told her, I had to have her. I'm making myself sick without her and that I see her coming in every day. And so his friend devised a plan. except the Samuel 13 1 through 2 and it came to pass after this that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister whose name was Tamar and Amnon the son of David loved her and Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick for his sister Tamar for she was a virgin and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her because in those days virginity meant something and they didn't travel in the same circles, and it would be so hard, but his friend, you always got somebody can devise a way. If you look at the government, you look at religion, there's always a schemer, a plotter in the works. There's always someone, that's why it says, beware of the schemes or the devices of Satan. The amplified version says he was frustrated. The living version says that he was tormented. But the strong desire, that strong desire to be unfaithful to one's clearly stated and understood responsibilities is a drive we have to deal with and overcome. So those are things that God legitimately gives us But the trying of our faith is worth much more than gold tried in the fire. So just like Job and just like all of us, there's a lot of fiery trials that come our way, but those trials are stepping stones to increase your faith as children of God. But if you're not a child of God, They are idolatrous vices of Satan that you're not purging from yourself. Only the Spirit of God gives you the power to overcome these drives. There's no temptation that had come upon us. I'll get to that in just a minute because I'm kind of twisting my notes all around here. first corinthians 10 and 12 i think that one's in it says um so be very careful if you're thinking oh i would have never have been what behaved like that let this be a warning to you for you too may fall into sin but remember this the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new or different many others have faced exactly the same problems before and no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. For he promises this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear patiently against it. But you have to know the word of God. That's what meditating in the scriptures does. strengthens you, that's your ammunition. The word of God is your power and ammunition. Just like when Satan came up to Jesus, though he were quoting scriptures, Jesus understood the scriptures. And that's why yesterday, as I was preaching in the last couple of weeks, I preached that get knowledge and get understanding, but you have to pray to God for wisdom to apply the knowledge and understanding. Because it varies in different situations, the applicability of that to your particular situation. That's why you have to know God, because it comes upon us differently, but there's nothing new under the sun. Let me read that same thing here in the amplified version. It says, therefore, let the one who thinks he stands firm, that he is immune to temptation, being overconfident and self-righteous, take care that he does not fall into sin and condemnation. It reminds me of once I heard Joe Norlin talking about how strong he was and that he could have two women laying on both sides of him in a bed. I want to know why would you be in a bed with two women or whatever and he wouldn't touch either one of them. But it says, when a man thinks he's staying, take heed lest he falls. You watch these people, they're thinking they're stronger than other people. When a man thinks he's staying, take heed lest he falls. No temptation, regardless of itself, has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience, nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance. But God is faithful to his word, and he is compassionate and trustworthy, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability to resist. But along with the temptation he has in the past and now is, and always will provide a way out as well so that you will be able to endure it without yielding and will overcome temptation with joy. Therefore, my beloved, run. Keep far away from any sort of idolatry that includes loving anything more than God or participating in anything that leads to sin and enslave the soul." Because sin, idolatry, leads to captivity. It holds you in bondage, you're in bondage to sin. That's how people blackmail people and do all sorts of things. And that's why it says flee youthful lust and sexual lust and sexual passion are certain things that you don't want to even get close to those because those are sometimes are harder to overcome than other sins are. And that's why it says flee youthful lust. It's more or less a youthful indiscretion that of falling into the throes of sin in that way. But we as a people don't understand because In this latter day, that's why we're seeing why he says study to show yourselves approved and that he had said in the New Testament churches pastors and teachers and the different gifts in the church because we see the ever expanding scope of idolatry and what could become idolatry to us and what we've been living that God gives us to overcome if he's our children, if we're his children. But not being his children, sometimes the commonality of having brothers and sisters and relatives of people in the same area with you, those are become enemies of yours. He says your enemies would be those of your own household. God had given Joseph a certain job to do. A lot of people talk about Joseph spoke evil of his brothers or he was a tell-tale or whatever. That's because God made Joseph a righteous man. He loved his brothers and things, but he loved God more, so he had to stand for what was right, and so he had to stand up against his brothers doing wrong and doing slanderous things, or doing things that was dishonoring to their parents, just as we today, to do the right thing, like Alexander Vittman did with this phone call that Trump had made during his first call, and they crucified him over this. in which he, as a Marine, as a soldier, he stood for principle, honor, and truth, just as we have people today. But since we are in a perverted nation, that people that was cheering on Louise whatever this guy's name that openly shot this CEO in the head that blown it to hitting the health care or something in the streets of New York City he murdered this guy and they had it on camera Here are women and people going crazy over him, and people trolling and writing on social media, worshiping this guy, idolizing this guy, a murderer. This is what this society, this is what this nation has come to. We're in the thrones of empowering, idolatry, covetousness, because he didn't get what he wanted. He figured healthcare had did him wrong. He's the avenger of his brother? He's the one that would go out and murder another being over this? Were you even worse? If you are abortionist and you against abortion, aren't you even worse than the guy that you protesting against? If you bomb this abortion clinic, if you murder this abortion doctor, aren't you worse than he are? You are not following the tenets of Jesus Christ. Abortion has become a idol to you. You know, I looked at that in the book of Deuteronomy, as we're looking at things, and I pray to God that he understand, and I'm not trying to get around what I have done or whatever, but work could become an idol to you. That's all you do to the neglecting of your family, and I can't say, well, we had so many bills, and it was so hard to keep up or whatever. All I can do is look at this in retrospect, and there's no man that go to the grave that say, only if I had a little bit more time on my job or whatever. Most men that come to God or look at it say, or they tell their sons and daughters, children say, well look, try to spend more time with your children or your family as you could. You're gonna wish you had her. I wish I could have had more weekends or more times with my family, with my children, with my wife. As we look back, there has to be remorse for what we worked, how many hours we worked, how many hours I put in, how many times that my wife has cooked dinner is ready, but I'm working overtime. I'm doing these things or whatever. That can become our idol. We can work too much. That's what Elon Musk, X, Grimes or whatever her name says. A lot of people don't realize. Anything could become an idol. I heard Jasper Williams preaching on it one time, that the church had become an idol to him. You know, that Bible could become an idol. Because you being, Paul talks about that, about a man being married, he can't dedicate as much time to the Lord as a person unmarried. He says whether it's better to be married or not be married. Because you owe time to your wife and to your family as you marry. Your time is not your own. Your body don't belong to you. Your body belong to your family, to your spouse, to those of your family. I remember Brother Harmon was talking one time and You remember Brother Alma, whenever he said, and that was the order that it has to be. God has to be first, your wife has to be second, your kids third. Most people, a lot of people put their kids before their spouse. But you know your kids can't come before your spouse because your kids are a product of you and your spouse. But if a wife or a husband loved the kids more than the spouse, you have your order incorrect. And if one of those come before God, there definitely is an idol there. When God says you can't put anything, put God first, then family, then job, then the rest of the things. I have come to see, however, that God is a jealous God, Deuteronomy 5 and 9. And that what he means, I believe, is that nothing absolute and nothing can be worshipped in our lives except him. Now, notice that what I'm saying here. Worship, in other words, he says, you shall worship no other God. In other words, you shouldn't worship anything. You shouldn't worship the ground you work on. You shouldn't worship her. You shouldn't worship him. You shouldn't worship anything. You should worship the Lord and him only shall you worship. Now, you honor and you respect your spouse, your children, and other people. God will not abide us placing any competition or anything ahead of before you. The Amplified Bible says that you shall have no other gods before or besides me. The Morphat translations, I like this one much better. It says, you shall have no gods but me. In other words, not something after me, but you shouldn't have any gods. No other god. He won't tolerate another god. See, Nebuchadnezzar, If you read Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian stuff, they were polytheistic. In other words, they served many different gods, just like the Egyptians. They served many different gods. But they say Daniel God is the true God. But you notice in Isaiah where he says, Isaiah says, there's no God except me. I'm the only one. That's where people get in contentions about Jesus Christ and about the Holy Spirit, about the three persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. But it's just one God. Elohim is a family. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. But that's one God. And we have to be become one with that God that means we have to put everything down in our lives That's why he says you cannot serve mama and me you cannot serve the both of us, but in the Garden of Eden when we ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil and that's when satan began broadcasting the spirit and god didn't want us to know good and evil we wasn't made that way but by our disobedience we brought this in about on us that we were able to tune to satan's broadcasting So we've become perverted in our tastes, and our tastes have to be converted in order to enjoy the benefits of God. We're given as fleshly beings. You remember that pecan candy you was eating today, it's good, isn't it? Really good. But I ate too much of it the other day. It kind of made me sick. But wasn't I going against scripture though? And it tells you in Proverbs, eat a little honey, but don't eat too much honey. Because nothing's wrong with eating, but too much eating is gluttony. That's why Solomon went aboard. That's why God told him about the strange women in his life or whatever, because sex is good, but God created sex for the marriage bed. It's a sacrament in marriage. It's something that only is privileged through that God has designed it that way. Any other way, we've perverted it. That's where the perversion comes in. We brought about casual sex then. And nothing should be casual about sex. Nothing should be casual about anything. Satan perverted us. That's the perversion. So, too much alcohol, we see where the religions that say about being teetotallers or whatever, but we also see where wine and drinking and where Solomon says there's nothing wrong with a man and that a man should eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of his labor. And God gives us those pleasures. So we shouldn't say you shouldn't drink no wine, even in the book of the New Testament where it said a bishop shouldn't be given a drink or wine or whatever, but the deacon could. You understand in there? But don't smile that much, Dick. But anyhow, what happens is when we go in putting our constraints on what God has said, We try to limit or try to prohibit something. We like Pharisees. We want to head this off at the path. Don't drink anything. It's like on the Sabbath, don't do anything or whatever. And Jesus was trying to say you over much righteousness. And that's why he did these things on the Sabbath to see where now you're making the Sabbath into a idol. you have made the Sabbath into idol. So anything could be carried out to its furthest extreme to become an idol. When growing up, did some people go into homes and things? That couch was an idol. They have put in plastic coverings on the couch. Nobody's allowed to sit on that couch. It's another couch in the other room. You can sit out. You can't eat out of those plates. You can't do that. And they done died and went on off somewhere and never got a chance to eat off or sit on the couch or anything because why? We had put that, we had put too extreme of value on that. We had did that like God did the Sabbath. He had holed the Sabbath. He had set it to the side, says, treat this one differently. This one is holy. So we can't make other days holy. We idolizing other days. We've made Sunday holy. We made that into an idol. Because God told us to worship on the Sabbath. God gave us the Sabbath as a day of rest. Now can we study and worship God or follow God? Because we worship him in spirit and truth. But we can't equalize Sunday with the Sabbath though. Because what we're doing, we're doing as Jeroboam did. Jeroboam created an idol. when he created another day God had offered to us in the regulative principle. The concept of Christmas, okay, I understand. But you've idolized that. You've then said that was the day God was born. You're giving God a birthday? Jesus Christ who's been here from forever? who's part of the Godhead, the only begotten son of God, that you didn't give him a day of his birth, and he didn't give us a day to worship him on? I mean, to say that this is his birthday and celebrate his day of birth? You've sat and consecrate, you've made idolatry and you brought it into the church. Now it's spiritual fornication. It's spiritual fornication. And that's what Paul was talking about in first Corinthians. the 10th chapter when he was talking about these temptations that are known to man and that we brought idolatry into the churches. We brought idolatry in by making things sacred. Some of the sacraments of communion, you should see how the people partake of communion and did things in the days of the apostles. These were the love feasts. Those was the love feasts in those days. Something I left out about this being human when I was talking about, I'm sorry, when I was talking about sex and about the flesh and everything that God had made us in his image and likeness, but that image had become flawed through the fall, and it gave us characteristics, and it sold us into bondage unto the devil. We're in bondage, and you remember I was talking about captivity and sin brings you into bondage, but God freed us from bondage just like he freed the children of Israel from Egypt just like when he brought them out what God had brought us out Brought us out of the world When we were born again, he justified us. When we're born again, we're justified. In other words, placed in the right standing with God, we've been redeemed. He's given us a clean slate. He's giving us a new mind to think like God thinks. Now we are in a process of overcoming. We use his word to overcome. We use prayer to overcome. we use obedience to the word to overcome. God has placed all of this into the church for us to become in his likeness, in his image, and that's why he authorized the church for to make us without a spot of blemish, we have to pull off the old man. Peter says he has shown me how to pull off this old tent, this old tabernacle. In other words, we have to start mortifying the deeds of the body. We have to put to death our desires, our lust, our will. That's why Jesus, he says, is there any other way for this to be done? He says, nevertheless, thy will be done. Get rid of our will we have to put it to death We have to bring every thought into the captivity that causes us to evade the things of God like Peter when Jesus said Flesh and blood had not revealed that to you. My father from heaven had revealed that unto you but soon as Jesus said that I the demon of pride in and in, the spirit of pride in and in. Because he had commended Peter and that made Peter feel above the others in knowledge. Knowledge puffed it up. When someone thinks they have knowledge, we have a president that's always saying how much he know and prides himself on his self perspective of his self. Very narcissistic. Everything is about him. It centers on him. So when Peter came up with ideas Jesus says get behind these Satan because that's not an idea from God That's not the way to that. God wants you to be a conquering hero He don't want he wants me to be a suffering Messiah. I must be crucified. I must die Peter said that's not gonna happen It's not gonna happen that way so we see that we're satan when we allow our flesh to make decisions we must learn that there's a living principle that god activate and still enforces in his creation and we must put to death our desire that's where wars and things come from, it's from these lusts or the desires that's within our memory. That's where covetousness comes from. That's what competition and all of these things come from. When this drive controls a person, retribution automatically follows. because God has to punish in his children, y'all his children? He has to punish in his children those things that not like him. He has to purge it out. If his word isn't washing it out, if you're not taking heed to the word, you're being disobedient and you have to punish the children of disobedience. He has to bring in chastening. And that's why pride and arrogance, sometime he takes us out of life. Samson didn't do what he was supposed to do and he was taken out of life. He ended up killing a lot of Philistines on his way out, but he didn't accomplish his mission what God had sent him to do. God has given us power to overcome us and he tells us to be overcomers. We don't stop being children of God, but we are tried. Every man will be tried as though with fire. There are fiery trials that will come toward each of us if we read in the book of Corinthians. But we may be billowing with wood, stubble, and hay. We may fall short. Some of the ground produced 30 fold, 60 fold, 40 fold, some 100 fold. But not all people can produce 100 fold because we're not all the same. You understand what I'm saying? But God had given it to us to be overcomers. So if Joseph, Joseph was more obedient than his brothers, if Joseph did all these things, it didn't make a difference whether Jacob loved him and Esau loved the other one or who loved who it's according to what God had designed in our lives It's not by the will of man. It's not by the will of flesh So that's why I say we have to seek God's purpose in our lives so Even at the end of life that dream came true where the brothers was bowing down to Joseph But it was brought about in a fashion that humiliated them. It brought them because they had did this through a sinister means. They meant it for evil. Joseph said, God turned it to good. God meant it for good. So we have to see with our brothers and sisters, he didn't hate his brothers and sisters. but it was destined for Joseph to be in the palace. You notice that he didn't give each one of them a palace next door to his palace or whatever. They all went back to where they were because they are not capable of living at that level. You understand what I'm saying? You will be rewarded according to the deeds done in your body. So we have to increase in faith and this is every man working out his own salvation with fear and trembling. Like a drug, the individual constantly needs more satisfaction or more of what he desires, but the human body is built in such a way that There's no sanity to the human body. I was talking about the pecan candy, whether it's chicken or fish or shrimp or beer or alcohol or drugs. That first rush is good, but notice you never get tired of it. You get tired of it, but it's not the same. That's why I say it comes to gluttony. It comes to overdoing something. Solomon talks about this in Ecclesiastes 1 and 8, that human nature cannot be satisfied. All things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The Amplified says everything is unutterably weary and tiresome. No matter how much we see, we're never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. All the app says, all things are wearisome and all words are frail. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with the seeing, nor the ear with hearing. And this is not the way God had made us. It is the way we have become as a result of Satan's broadcasting of knowing good and evil. That's why we can only be fulfilled in God. That's why God meant Variety in our lives, so he's told us we can eat of every tree of the garden But when she coveted that one tree that was prohibited to her That was coveting and with coveting something that don't belong to her So that couldn't satisfy you couldn't become as God's you couldn't be filled with the wisdom of God You couldn't be anyways like God that was prohibited to you But God also tells you not to covet your neighbor's wife. Because after you divorce your wife or lose your wife and you marry your neighbor's wife and get your neighbor's wife or get your neighbor's husband or whatever, maybe a year or two after then, y'all get tired of one another and you go want somebody else, you're not gonna trust one another. The relationship is not gonna be the same. And so it continues on and going. Does it tell us, look at that commandment that told you that 10th commandment bookends the other commandment, because a lot of people narrate them. It says, covet not your neighbor's house or his field or anything of your neighbor, because after you get a house or a car like your neighbor, after a while, you can want a different car. You can want another car, you can want another house, a bigger house or a different. these things doesn't satisfy. God hadn't designed us that way, but we went Satan's way, and that's what changed us, what God meant for us, the principles that he meant for us. Now we are insatiable because we're carnal, we're fleshly, and a carnal man is enmity with God because covetousness, competition, and all of these things are bred, those are sins. That's why covetousness is idolatry. And you can't stop from being an idolater because that's built into you. And the only way you could exercise that is, is put it to death. And the only way you could do that is by becoming a child of God, by being a child of God. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you this day, Lord God, I ask you to strengthen us in your word and in your way, Lord God, and in doing those things that are pleasing unto you.